


Halloween

by cinnab0n



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Afterlife, Angst, Canon Compliant, Character Death, Indian Harry Potter, Indian James Potter, One Shot, Short One Shot, This Is Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:42:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28890063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinnab0n/pseuds/cinnab0n
Summary: Lily choked on a sob. James was dead. James, the sunniest, brightest, most animated person she ever knew was lying on the floor somewhere downstairs, and his warm brown eyes were now empty bits of glass in his head. James was gone now. He was twenty-one and his whole life was laid out before him, but now he was gone and could never come back.
Relationships: (mentioned) - Relationship, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 11





	Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> I was feeling sad and so I wrote this

It was Halloween.

She and James gave Harry his first Pumpkin Pasty that morning, and he bit into it with his 3 teeth and smiled, and she looked at James, and he looked at her, and everything was a little bit perfect. 

Now Lily was looking into the cold, unforgiving gaze of a man who never loved. He wrapped his pale hand a little tighter around his wand and stared straight at her and she wanted to crumple up into a ball.

“James Potter is dead.”

Lily choked on a sob. James was dead. James, the sunniest, brightest, most animated person she ever knew was lying on the floor somewhere downstairs, and his warm brown eyes were now empty bits of glass in his head. James was gone now. He was twenty-one and his whole life was laid out before him, but now he was gone and could never come back. 

Lily thought of all the things that were going to happen. James was going to be an auror, making the world safer for everyone like he always wanted to. He was going to celebrate Deepavali with Harry, and he was going to teach Harry how to ride his first real broom. He was the one who cooked for them, and he was going to learn all her mother’s recipes for her. He was going to spend every full moon for the rest of his life running with Remus, and he was going to be Sirius’s brother when he needed one. He was going to be the best man at Remus and Sirius’s wedding someday, if it ever became legal. He was going to bake cookies for Peter.

But none of that would happen. Not anymore. Because James was dead.

“I’m not here to kill you, Lily,” Voldemort said, “You do not have to die tonight. You can start a new life, be someone else. You can live, Lily.” She paused. The Death Eaters did not like to leave survivors, not when you could exterminate a whole blood-traitor family in one go. “I am here for him.” He pointed one long, bony finger at her son, her precious boy, the best thing in the whole world as far as she could see. 

“No,” Lily gasped, “You can’t take him. You can’t have him. Kill me, kill me instead!” The oddly serene look that had been on Voldemort’s face morphed into one of fury. 

“Silly girl! Move aside!” Voldemort pointed his wand at her and recited the incantation she knew so well from the battlefield. She saw it coming and she screamed with all the energy she had in her body. It struck her and suddenly she was falling, falling down something she couldn’t see the end to.

There is a short moment before death where you have time to think, just for a second. At least he has Remus and Padfoot, Lily thought. They would be good parents- Sirius would make sure Harry would have fun and be happy and free, and Remus would teach Harry all the things he would need to know, and make sure he didn’t get into too much trouble. If Sirius raised him, he would probably be the bane of McGonagall’s existence, but she would love him anyway, in that way she did all of the self-proclaimed Marauders. Peter- oh Peter, how could that little rat have done this- he would go to Azkaban, probably, and she didn’t want that for him, but he killed James, and he killed her. Harry would be okay, she told herself. Everything would be okay. She needed it to be okay. She loved him so much, more than anyone else, and she needed him to be okay. It was all going to be okay, she thought, and then the world fell around her and it all went dark.

The worst thing is that Lily knew it wasn’t really okay. Everyone was a little bit wrong, in a way. There was no castle in the clouds, or gilded palace, and there was no bearded man. She was there with James, and they couldn’t see what happened out in the world. They didn’t know what was happening to Harry, not really, and that was terrifying. She got glimpses, right after she died, but after that she saw nothing. She saw Severus enter her home, clutching her lifeless body, and she felt distinctly uncomfortable. She saw him ignore her Harry as he wailed and cried and watched an adult who didn’t care about him. She saw Sirius arrive and yell at Severus, telling him not to disrespect her corpse. She saw him pick up Harry and wrap him in his coat, rocking him and gently pressing a kiss to the new spidery scar on his forehead. Oh Merlin, her son defeated Voldemort. Her baby. Then she saw Hagrid come and take the baby from Sirius, taking him to Albus, probably. She saw the funeral, where Remus stood stranded without his brothers. She saw the dirt that covered her grave fall upon her, and she saw nothing more, beyond feelings and ideas of what happened.

They were all so broken, now. Sirius was in prison, and Peter escaped, and Remus was all alone in a world that would tear him into bits more than he himself already did. She and James were in some sort of after, not knowing what was happening anymore beyond vague feelings, and Harry was left without his family. 

Harry.

He was going to grow up alone, thinking he is dirty and freakish and wrong. He wasn’t going to know any different, either. Lily wanted to cradle him in her arms just one more time, and she knew James wanted to give him one last kiss, but neither would ever happen.

Because Halloween was over, and they were dead.


End file.
